Coeliac Disease

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland have been diagnosed with coeliac disease.

Paul Goggins: The number of people diagnosed with coeliac disease in Northern Ireland is not available.
	Information is available on the number of those suffering with coeliac disease admitted as inpatients to hospitals in Northern Ireland.
	During 2004-05 (the latest year for which information is available), there were a total of 532 admissions to hospitals in Northern Ireland, for patients with coeliac disease.
	It should be noted that any individual could have been admitted to hospital more than once over the course of a year and would therefore be counted more than once in the figures.
	 Source: Hospital Inpatients System DHSS and PS

Departmental Publications

Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many  (a) press notices and  (b) consultation documents were issued by his Department during the summer recess.

Peter Hain: I apologise for the delay in responding to this question, this was due to an administrative error. During the summer recess, 28 July to 10 October 2005 inclusive, the NIO issued the following:
	
		
			   Number 
			 Press notices 44 
			 Consultation document 1

Prisons

Jeffrey M Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what advice was given to the governor of HMP Magherberry about the advisability of granting compassionate parole to James Joseph McEvoy.

Paul Goggins: Decisions on granting compassionate temporary release are matters for Prison Service headquarters acting on the basis of information from the establishment. Mr. McEvoy was returned to custody on 15 May. Following this incident a review of the procedures is in hand.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 
	(1)  what resources are available to the Head of Human Resources of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to enable him to answer correspondence from hon. Members;
	(2)  what the average time taken was by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Head of Human Resources to reply to correspondence in each of the past 12 months.

Shaun Woodward: This parliamentary question falls under the direct operational responsibility of the Chief Constable, rather than Government policy, and I have therefore asked the Chief Constable to respond directly to you.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 11 May 2006,  Official Report, column 507W, on police; how many police trainee constables were recruited in financial year 2004-05.

Paul Goggins: I am advised that 531 police trainee constables out of a total of 11,801 applicants were recruited in financial year 2004-05.

Public Consultations

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many public consultations  (a) each Northern Ireland Department and  (b) the Northern Ireland Office undertook in the last 12 months; and what the cost was (i) in total and (ii) of each consultation.

David Hanson: Details of the number of public consultations undertaken by the Northern Ireland Office and the 11 Northern Ireland Departments between April 2005 and March 2006 and associated costs have been placed in the Library of the House.
	Costs include figures for each consultation and a total for each Department. All costs indicated are external and do not include, for example, internal costs such as staff time. The costs reflect the scale of each consultation and the methods used to carry out the consultation whether in writing or electronic form.

Rates

Eric Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of an average  (a) domestic rates and  (b) water rates bill in Northern Ireland from April 2007.

David Hanson: The Secretary of State determines the level of the regional rate in NI. The average domestic regional rate bill in 2007-08 is expected to be around £395. In addition to this, district councils each strike a district domestic rate independently from central Government. Based on current trends, the average district domestic rate next year will be £313.
	On 8 December 2005, my hon. Friend, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. Woodward) announced the introduction of domestic water and sewerage charges in Northern Ireland. Bills will be set in line with average domestic bills in England and Wales. Charges will be phased in over a three-year period which means that the average domestic water and sewerage bill in April 2007 will be just over £100.
	My hon. Friend also announced the introduction of an affordability tariff which will ensure that eligible low-income households spend no more than 3 per cent. of their income on water and sewerage charges. No-one on the tariff will pay more than £60 in 2007-08 regardless of the value of the property in which they live. Up to 200,000 households in Northern Ireland will benefit from the tariff.

Review of Public Administration

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether local councils in Northern Ireland will be prevented from utilising cash reserves in the run-up to the implementation of the findings of the Review of Public Administration.

David Cairns: Councils may earmark reserves for specific statutory or policy purposes or for contingencies and it is for them to decide how they utilise these funds. Nevertheless, the Local Government Taskforce Finance Sub-Group is currently considering all aspects of local government finance and any recommendations made by this group will ultimately be a matter for Ministers.

Road Fatalities

Eddie McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the Department of Environment will set out the new measures to be taken to reduce fatalities on the roads.

David Cairns: Several new measures are currently being progressed to reduce fatalities on the roads.
	New primary road traffic legislation, on which the Department of the Environment (DOE) consulted from October 2005 to January 2006, will be introduced in due course.
	The Department will be making an announcement later in the year on the compulsory wearing of seat belts/restraints on buses, coaches, cars and goods vehicles. A new TV publicity campaign to highlight the dangers of not wearing seat belts is planned for September.
	The Department is currently preparing a new Highway Code which will be published in March 2007.

Road Safety Authority

Eddie McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will establish a Road Safety Authority in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.

David Cairns: The Northern Ireland Road Safety Strategy 2002-2012 provides an integrated approach to the planning, co-ordination and delivery of Government's road safety activities and it requires the three main statutory bodies with responsibility for road safety in Northern Ireland (the Department of the Environment, the Department for Regional Development's Roads Service and the Police Service of Northern Ireland) to work together closely in partnership.
	A Road Safety Steering Group, comprising senior management from each of the three partners, is responsible for coordinating delivery of the strategy and ensuring cohesive and complementary education, enforcement and engineering road safety activities.
	These partnership arrangements are working well and are making a significant contribution to casualty reductions and there are no plans at this time to change this approach.

Small Change Big Difference

Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps his Department and its agencies have taken following the launch of the Government's Small Change Big Difference campaign.

Paul Goggins: Discussions have been held between officials in the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland and officials within the Department of Health in England, in relation to the extent to which social marketing campaigns being developed by the Department of Health, including the Small Change Big Difference campaign, could be applied to Northern Ireland.
	A number of public information campaigns have been developed by the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland to promote healthier lifestyles, as part of Northern Ireland's public health strategy, Investing for Health. In March 2006, the Health Promotion Agency launched, "Every Step is a Forward Step", to promote the health benefits of physical activity and to encourage members of the public to undertake regular, moderate physical activity.

Traffic Wardens

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many traffic wardens in Northern Ireland were assaulted in the course of their duties in each year between 2000 and 2005.

Shaun Woodward: To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of assault cases at disproportionate cost.

Waste Transfers

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his estimate is of the amount of waste from the Irish Republic being transferred to Northern Ireland in each of the last three years.

David Cairns: Waste can be transferred into Northern Ireland under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations (1994).
	Between March 2005 and February 2006, the total tonnage for waste movements from ROI to NI moved under the regulations and notified to the Department was 14,610 tonnes. However, a significant proportion did not remain in NI, but continued on to GB.
	The total quantities of green listed waste (for example, for paper only) transported under these regulations are unknown, as the movement of such waste does not have to be notified.
	The Department's Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) has detected some examples of sham recovery, where companies claim to be recycling the waste they input, when in fact they send it to landfill. EHS is investigating these cases and its Environmental Crime Team will be increasingly focusing on this area.
	Estimates suggest that up to 250,000 tonnes of household waste from the Republic of Ireland (ROI) were illegally deposited on land within Northern Ireland (NI) between October 2002 and the end of 2004.
	To date, 57 illegal landfill sites have been discovered in NI containing ROI waste. It is not possible to determine how much waste was deposited in a given year as in many cases the waste is decayed to the point of being untraceable.

Local Election Reports

Eric Pickles: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what the Electoral Commission's timetable is for publishing its reports on the local elections held on 4 May 2006.

Peter Viggers: There is no statutory requirement for the Electoral Commission to report on the administration of the recent local government elections other than in respect of its evaluations of the 15 different electoral pilot schemes that took place in 21 English local authority area elections on 4 May 2006. The Commission has informed me that those reports will be available by the statutory deadline of 4 August 2006.
	The Commission informs me that it has also scheduled a series of review activities in relation to the conduct of the local government elections held in England on 4 May 2006, in exercise of its power under section 6 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 to keep matters relating to local government elections under review. It intends to publish its conclusions in the summer.

Press Releases

Oliver Heald: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission 
	(1)  what steps the Speaker's Committee has taken to satisfy itself that the Electoral Commission's press release of 16 May 2006 on mock elections represents an efficient and effective use of its resources;
	(2)  what guidance the Commission has given to its press office on ensuring impartiality in its press releases;
	(3)  what discussions the Commission had with political parties prior to issuing its press release of 16 May 2006 on mock elections;
	(4)  what discussions the Commission had with political parties on the supporting materials and manifesto guides to the political parties produced for its mock election 2006 campaign prior to the distribution of these materials to schools.

Peter Viggers: The statutory duties of the Speaker's Committee do not require it to satisfy itself that any specific action of the Electoral Commission represents an efficient and effective use of its resources. It is not therefore its practice to do so.
	I have asked the Electoral Commission to write to my hon. Friend, and to place a copy of its letter in the Library of the House.

Voter Registration Campaigns

Eric Pickles: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission how much the Electoral Commission spent in  (a) 2005 and  (b) 2006 on campaigns to increase voter registration, including grants to local authorities.

Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission informs me that it spent approximately £2.05 million in Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2005 on campaigns to increase voter registration and, to date, in 2006 has spent approximately £1.88 million on campaigns in Great Britain. The Commission makes its campaign materials available to local authorities at no cost.